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Monthly Archives: October 2012

“Probable Cause” (S5E5) was probably THE best episode of Castle I’ve seen in a long time. Maybe ever. And I love Castle. And I think every episode is great. Especially when Nathan Fillion makes a Firefly or Buffy reference. Oh, and when Castle doesn’t get special treatment because he’s in trouble? Love it.

So, back to the episode last night, “Probable Cause.”

While investigating a shocking ritualistic murder, Beckett and her team uncover surprising evidence linking Castle to the killing. As the evidence against him mounts, loyalties are tested, and when surprising revelations come to light, Beckett begins to wonder how well she really knows her new lover and partner of four years.

I need to stop gushing about how much I love this episode. But first, here’s what happened…

First up, there’s a murder. No surprise there. It seemed pretty standard for our gang to go and investigate the crime scene as they usually do. Found evidence of murder, some fingerprints, the usual. EXCEPT. The fingerprints belong to Castle. The ones they found at the crime scene. And they were there BEFORE the gang got there. Mysterious. And makes Castle a murder suspect. Only they try to dismiss it when they find another suspect who was a lover to the victim, Tessa.

The next piece of evidence is jewelry that Tessa received from her alleged lover. So the gang follows that lead. Straight back to Castle. Castle allegedly made a withdrawal for $12K in a cashiers check and took it to the jeweler where the alleged lover purchased Tessa’s earrings. So the evidence is piling up. And Castle keeps denying. And Beckett keeps questioning. It’s hard to see her question Castle because they’ve been partners and are now in love.

In an effort to relieve Castle of his murder suspect status, they go to the chief who orders his apartment be searched, his computer swept. More evidence. They found gloves, and that Castle’s computer had been wiped clean. They found a deleted file that contained a story idea for the perfect murder. And emails to Castle’s alleged lover, Tessa. Beckett is overwhelmed. Esposito and Ryan finally admit they know the two were dating. And the other alleged lover of Tessa’s alibied out. Castle has no alibi and is officially arrested for Tessa’s murder. And Castle still denies it.

Beckett has a really nice moment with Lanie where she tells about all the alleged emails and Castle’s alleged lover. Beckett gives Lanie this really concise, genuine and sweet description of Castle and how he can’t be the killer they think he is:

You should have seen him, Lanie. He looked like a little boy, he was so scared. I know him, Lanie. He is an immature, egotistical, self-centered jackass sometimes but he’s not this.

Castle in the holding cell is a whole other plot twist of drama. Tyson, or 3XK, shows up as a cop to threaten Castle. He killed Tessa and framed Castle. Way to go for exposition. He explains how and why he framed Castle. He wanted to disappear and for no one to be looking for him so he could start killing again. Tyson said it wasn’t about the killing, it was about the planning and the preparation. The perfect frame job. Tyson isn’t seen in the holding cell because he’s slick and tampered with the surveillance footage.

Castle confesses to Beckett about Tyson being there, and she finally sees that the case makes sense and that Castle is being framed. In a desperate attempt to save Castle’s life, Beckett goes back to the chief to beg they keep him there instead of sending him to central booking. No such luck. But Castle manages to escape custody and meet up with Beckett in the NY Public Library, where she first arrested him. Castle has a lead on the case.

Tyson hired a lookalike to pose as Castle to withdraw money and purchase jewelry. He also got Castle’s fingerprint, and was able to plant the rest of the evidence. Charges were dropped, but Castle escaped from custody, so he’s still in trouble.

Beckett takes Castle back to the precinct to deal with his escape from custody, when they get caught on bridge while it’s opening. They were planted there by Tyson, who rearends them, then captures Beckett to draw Castle out of the car. Castle shoots Tyson, and he falls over the bridge into the water, never to be found.

Castle finally puts together the last of the puzzle. Everything had been set up so Tyson could disappear. He planted everything, and wanted them to find all the evidence. Public and dramatic and final, so he could go back to killing with no one knowing. Talk about an unfinished ending.

I love how characters keep coming back. I never really like Tyson, or his murderer person, 3XK, but it makes for a great season to season story that never seems to be finished. And I can’t even begin to gush about how much I love the plot twists and Castle being framed and not being the golden boy for a minute. Nathan Fillion really nailed this character. And the fact that Castle played true to his nature of having to solve the case when he is the suspect. Classic. Castle and Beckett really do make a great team.

When Walden’s old family friend Missi (Miley Cyrus) comes to visit, he now finds her attractive at 19 but is horrified when she suggests he date her mom and starts feeling paranoid about getting old. Jake and Missi meet and fall for one another, but she ends their short-lived fling when she leaves to get back together with her boyfriend back home. Walden and Alan console Jake and the three of them bond over their relationship woes. …

The only problem I have with the description they give about this episode is that Walden and Alan never console Jake over Missi. Jake and Missi hook up, and when he leaves, she says she has a boyfriend, and the episode ends. We never see Jake being consoled. The only bonding that really happens is between Alan and Walden because Alan jokes about Walden’s memory loss. Walden has a few good sight gags involving those jokes where he can’t remember what he was doing, why he was going upstairs. He can’t remember what he forgot to remember.

But there are so many things wrong with this episode. Aside from Alan wanting to creep all over a 19 year old Missi, he also wanted Walden to creep all over Missi. And Walden was in a familiar situation in this episode. In a 2004 episode, Camel Filters and Pheromones, Berta brings her 16 year old granddaughter (Meghan Fox) to work, causing all kinds of problems for the guys. The twist is last night’s episode was that Missi wanted Walden to hook up with her mother.

I can’t say that I’m enjoying it this season, although so far it’s been better than last season. Sadly, I think the show died with Charlie. And the ratings boost was because of Ashton Kutcher, which is fine. I’m not a fan, but he can be funny. The show just isn’t what it used to be. And Alan is getting creepier all around. He used to be sad, but it was funny and not at all depressing. Now it’s just beyond all that.

I’m a little late to the game on this one, but I had a few thoughts that came to mind.

The news of the latest Bachelorette split comes as no surprise to me, nor should it anyone. Can a real relationship or true love REALLY come from a televised manufactured series of situations in which you spend the least amount of time with the person you ultimately end up choosing? Is that really what it takes to find love or make a relationship work? I kind of doubt it.

Recent Bachelorette, Emily and her fiance Jef (with one “f”) have ended their engagement. And after only a few months. They have said the split is on good terms and both have stated that they were a couple in love and trying to make it work. But obviously, they couldn’t.

I’d never watched the Bachelorette before this season, and I sincerely doubt I’ll ever watch it again. It felt empty and insincere. But what can you expect from reality television… it also felt rushed, but when you have 25 guys allegedly vying for the affection of one woman and six weeks to do the wooing in a minimal capacity, there is nothing shocking about the end results. And it only confirmed my original idea that you can’t find love on a television that is based around finding love. I understand there are unique circumstances, and there is an exception to every rule, but overall, that’s just not how it works.

Oh, and what kills me, or makes me giggle depending on how you look at it, about this split is that Emily was the “winner” on a previous season of the Bachelor. And that relationship ended, and Emily was claiming to be hurt by it, and never thought she’d find love again, much less on TV. And what did she do? She signed up to be the prize instead off the ass fighting for the prize. Meh, whatever I guess.

The newest cast for Celebrity Apprentice has been announced. And they’re the “all stars.” Fine. I’ll bite. But only because I love Celebrity Apprentice. Here’s what the cast looks like this time around:

I think the teams are a little lopsided, unless they’re planning on adding more women. That also depends on how they divide up the teams. Will it be men vs women, or will there be some other random criteria?

Anyway. The men’s team definitely looks strong, and I’m not surprised. The women, in my opinion, are lacking. I really only like Lisa Rinna. All the others I really don’t care much about. LaToya was a joke, and Omarosa is only famous for being the Apprentice. Compare them to Penn, Lil Jon, Dee Snider and Dennis Rodman… they don’t stand a chance.

And are they really the all stars? Actually, they are probably the only ones who agreed to do the show again.

NBC has decided to air ‘Mockingbird Lane’, the highly anticipated Munsters reboot, the Friday before Halloween.

NBC is describing the reboot this way:

Buying a house these days is a nightmare, so Herman and Lily are shocked that no one scooped up the rambling Victorian mansion at 1313 Mockingbird Lane that was the site of a series of grisly hobo murders. Settling into their new place, they’re quickly onto the mission at hand: to gently ease Eddie into the reality of his werewolf adolescence. But it’s not always so easy to accept that your child is a little “different” from the rest of the kids. Meanwhile, Herman, who works as a funeral director, is suffering from a heart condition. Since he’s made up mostly of spare parts, he knew his makeshift heart would eventually give out. No worries though, because Grandpa, who is pretty good at procuring body parts, is on the case. All Herman cares about is finding a new heart with the same capacity to love Lily as much as he has for so many decades.

Not gonna lie. I’m both excited and skeptical of this reboot. I’m a purist, and typically don’t enjoy remakes. Especially in television. I mean, look at some of the most recent reboots that failed. The Bionic Woman, Charlie’s Angels (which I don’t think has made it to TV yet, so maybe it hasn’t failed… if not, we’ll see), . Sure, there’s Hawaii 5-0, but I’m not really a fan of that one, even though the ratings are great, and people seem to enjoy it. Actually, I think CBS has got a pretty good hold on programming these days. NBC has been lacking, and maybe this reboot is an attempt at redemption.

But I digress. I’m much too young to have watched the Munsters during its original airing, but I certainly watched it in reruns. Mostly because my parents loved it. So I loved it by association. Actually, I liked watching it anyway. So, therein lies my skepticism with a reboot.

Oh, and Jerry O’Connell as Herman? Um. Suspension of reality for a moment. I know that in TV today, creating a realistic fake world and adding a layer of fantasy is the norm. Come on. You don’t really expect to see some Frankenstein dude wandering around the town. In the 60’s, sure. Apparently no one questioned the obvious spare parts guy walking around, nevermind the vampire grandfather and werewolf son. So, creating normalcy from something that was really pretty out there is going to be a task for NBC.

The faith I DO have in the show lies in the creators, who also created Pushing Daisies, which I LOVED, but always felt it should have been on a bigger network, like HBO or Showtime.

I will certainly be watching Mockingbird Lane, and I can only hope that I love it. The key to enjoying a reboot is to look at it as its own show, a singular entity and not compare it to the original. So, I guess we’ll see.

Or perhaps I should be blaming Hulu Plus… Either way, I got sucked in to watching four seasons of Felicity in about a week. Yes, I can marathon shows like that. It’s not that I have all this time to be doing it. If I had to sit in front of the TV and do it, I don’t think I could – it requires an awful lot of time. I blame the Hulu Plus app I have on my iPhone. I can watch anything any time, anywhere. So, yeah, I got sucked in.

Anyway… I got sucked into watching Felicity. It originally aired from 1998 to 2002, and was supposed to follow one girl through college so you could see how college and New York changed her life. Yup. it certainly did. I WAS little curious about why it only ran for four seasons, so I did a little searching and came up with a bunch of crap about the stars wanting more money, or screen time, or something. Then I found a comment on some site that said that creator JJ Abrams had only intended for the series to run four seasons and no more BECAUSE it was about a girl who’s life changed in college. I’ll believe that before I believe some of the other things.

Well, back to my thoughts…

Basically, the timeline of important events goes like this:

Felicity followed Ben to New York, and college (UNY)

Felicity met Noel, her RA, who seemingly immediately fell in love with her

Felicity started “stalking” Ben, who wanted to date her sort of BFF, Julie (who was the… PINK POWER RANGER! go, go, Power Rangers…)

Felicity met Elena who would become another BFF, along with Meghan, who was goth at the time, and everyone hated Meghan

Felicity dated Noel, but was still in love with Ben. She tried having sex with Noel, but a fire in his dorm room put the kibosh on that

To change her life, Felicity cut her hair. Short. So short that it’s a pop culture reference

Ben and Felicity continued to work together at Dean & Deluca, while Noel and Felicity stayed friends

Felicity and Ben finally started dating, and she wanted them to move in together. It didn’t work

Meghan and Sean, Ben’s roommate, started dating. She became much more likable

Elena started dating Tracy, an uber-religious guy who wanted to be a virgin for his wife… until he went to Africa and hussied up with some chick

Julie left

Ben got protective-cuddly with the new roommate whose boyfriend had a drug problem. Felicity was jealous

Elena and Tracy got engaged, but called off the wedding at the altar

Sean and Meghan got married instead

Noel married Javier’s cousin, and stayed married for a year to collect $50K, which he gave to Sean because it was “blood money”

Ben went to EMT training, and Felicity spent the summer with Elena and Noel

Felicity and Noel slept together

Ben found out and broke up with Felicity

During the groveling, Ben met Lauren, his father’s AA sponsoree. His father had liver problems and was sick. Ben and Lauren bonded, which made Felicity jealous

Ben knocked up Lauren, and she wanted to move to Arizona

Felicity got caught in a fire in the art room, and Noel saved her life

Ben got into a car accident with Lauren who was driving drunk and 8 months pregnant

Ben and Felicity got back together

Sean and Noel started a graphics business together

The gang graduated, and Felicity left NY to go home to Palo Alto

6 months later, Ben is in Palo Alto with Felicity, Elena is “dead,” and Noel is getting married

Ben cheats on Felicity before the wedding

There is a series of flashback “fantasy” episodes which negates most of the timeline above

Felicity finds someone to help her get “back to the future,” where Noel is getting married, Elena is alive, Sean and Meghan are together, and Felicity and Ben get back together

Phew… that was quite a timeline for four years. And it totally sucked me in.

Aside from the fact that I couldn’t get away from it, there were a few things I just couldn’t get over. First, I always thought Felicity should have been with Noel. Even thought the stupid flashback “fantasy” episodes pulled a “It’s a Wonderful Life” and killed Noel. I thought she should have been with him all along. Mostly because I thought Ben was a giant douche. And he and Felicity kept hurting each other. I mean, how many times can you hurt someone before you just throw in the towel…

I also hated that as the series continued, Ben and Felicity did more whispering than actual speaking. Of course I had captions on, but I don’t think I really saw Ben’s mouth move once during senior year. He had a funny way of speaking. And Felicity opened her mouth, but no sound would come out. Most of their scenes together were of them fighting in a whisper, or apologizing in a whisper, or having pillow talk in a whisper. Seriously… speak up!

I hated the fantasy episodes. Even though I thought Felicity should have picked Noel, she didn’t. She chose Ben, and I accepted that. I really didn’t need to see the what if about the whole thing. Besides, I thought the writers really took the most possible dramatic ideas they could and made them happen. Why couldn’t they have just been happy?

Oh, and the series finale was an actual clip show. There were scenes with older Felicity trying to get back home, but she was telling the story of how she got to where she was, and unfortunately for me, that involved showing clips.

Overall, I like the show. I remember liking it when I watched it the first time on TV. I don’t remember seeing how it ended, but I do remember the bulk of everything else. I read somewhere that it was on a few top 100 lists and was nominated for a bunch of awards for being the best show. I have no doubt it was a great show. I’m just not happy about how it ended.